Winning a series in India an achievement worth striving for, reckons Steve Smith
Smith hopes to conquer the Indian fortress
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Steve Smith, whose Australian team came agonizingly close to winning a Test series in India in 2017, feels that conquering the Indian fortress is an achievement worth striving for and hopes to have one more crack at it. Smith also expressed his displeasure in Australia ‘drawing’ the Ashes in 2019.
Having been whitewashed 4-0 by India in 2013 and 3-0 by Sri Lanka in 2016, Australia, led by Steve Smith, entered the 2017 tour of India with little but no hope of winning the series. However, skipper Smith pulled off a performance for the ages in the series and him striking impeccable tons in each of the first three Tests meant that Australia went into the final Test at Dharamsala with the series level at 1-1. Eventually, they succumbed to a 8-wicket defeat and lost the series 2-1, but the Kangaroos had given Virat Kohli’s men a scare like no other.
Smith, who was the skipper in that series, has now stated that he, some day, wishes to conquer the Indian fortress which, according to him, is a pretty big mountain to climb. Smith, now 31 years old, also hoped for him to be able to have the opportunity to have one more crack at the same.
"They're the two big mountains to climb and if you can do that, it would be pretty special," he said. Hopefully I get another crack at it, we'll see how we go,” Smith told cricket.com.au.
"I'm getting a bit old now. You never know how long I've got left, and you never know what the future holds. But it's certainly something to strive for, that's for sure."
One of Australia’s successful conquests, however, was the Ashes campaign in 2019 where they retained the urn on English soil for the first time since 2001. That achievement, too, was rendered possible by the brilliance of Smith, who amassed 774 runs in the series, but the 31-year-old has claimed that he was left unsatisfied with the result, given the series still ended 2-2. Smith, speaking on the 2019 Ashes, admitted that despite lifting the urn on the final day of the tour, he felt disappointed due to it coming on the back of a defeat at The Oval.
"To know that we'd got the Ashes back was pretty special. Unfortunately, we couldn't win them which is something I'd still like to do. It just doesn't feel the same … you get to the end of the series and we're there holding up the Ashes but we'd just lost the last Test match, and we actually hadn't won anything .It was cool to get them back, but I was actually more disappointed that we hadn't won them.
"From my personal perspective, I think it's unfinished business. It's great to retain the Ashes but it just doesn't sit right with me when you don't win it. We drew the series – good, but not great. So I probably left at the end of the fifth Test (feeling) more disappointed than a sense of achievement."
Smith will return to Test colours in December in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, but will first make a stop in the UAE where he'll be leading Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.
